Every console variable worth changing on a druid in Forever

If a settings guide for Forever has told you to type something like /console cameraDistanceMaxZoomFactor 2.6, you’ve probably wondered what else sits behind that console, which of the commands in older guides still work on Forever, and how to put things back if one of them makes your game worse. This guide goes through every console variable worth changing on a druid, grouped by what it’s for, as the companion to the day-one settings guide, which covers everything you can change from the menu.

Whilst I’ve been typing console commands into this game since vanilla, Forever’s client is the modern one with its own renames and removals, and I haven’t run every command below on the live servers yet. The guide was first written before launch from the beta client and updated for the live game on 7 November 2026. Every name, default and saved location in the tables is checked against the client’s own variable list, but code can’t tell you how far the camera really goes or what a variable looks like on screen, so anything resting on retail, Classic or the beta says so, in the sentence or in the table.

Before we start

A console variable (CVar for short) is essentially a named setting the game keeps, most of which the options menu changes for you behind the scenes, and some of which have no box in the menu at all. You change one by typing a command into chat, and nothing in this guide needs an addon. It does assume you’ve been through the first phase of the settings guide, because where a menu option exists it’s the better place to change a setting, and the tables say so.

Every command below is written the same way, as shown below:

/run SetCVar("cameraDistanceMaxZoomFactor", 2.6)

In this case the name goes in the first pair of quotes and the value after the comma. You might see the shorter /console cameraDistanceMaxZoomFactor 2.6 elsewhere, and it works for most variables, but a good number of the ones a druid cares about (autoUnshift, mouseover casting and the key-press settings among them) are marked secure in the client’s variable list (build 70532). A secure variable is one the game guards, and on retail /console can’t set one at all and nothing can set one in combat. The /run SetCVar form works for both kinds out of combat, so this guide uses it for everything. Most nameplate variables are secure as well, so do all of this standing in town.

To check what a variable is set to, and what its default is, use these two:

/dump GetCVar("SpellQueueWindow")
/dump GetCVarDefault("SpellQueueWindow")

To put any variable back to its default, use the same pattern every time, as shown below:

/run SetCVar("SpellQueueWindow", GetCVarDefault("SpellQueueWindow"))

Notably, the Warcraft Wiki warns that /console cvar_default (it’s in the client’s variable list) run without a name after it resets every variable in the game, every one of your options included, so always give it a name, or use the pattern above and never think about it.

A few of these settings are saved per character, which means setting them on each druid, and the tables mark those. The client’s variable list marks most of the rest as saved to your account and the graphics ones as saved on your computer only. Three things about saving rest on retail, that with synchronizeConfig on (the setting that keeps your options on Blizzard’s servers) they follow you to another computer, that changes are only written when you log out or type /reload, so a crash straight after a change means setting it again, and that a client patch keeps your values. The defaults are from that list at build 70532, the newest one published, and the launch client’s interface code (build 70790) changes none of the variables in this guide.

Anything stated plainly below is backed by the launch client’s own code, Blizzard’s notes or a named source. Anything resting on retail, Classic or the beta says so, in the sentence or in the table’s Checked against column.

Without other people’s work this guide would be guesswork. Gethe’s mirror of the launch client’s interface code (build 70790) and the variable list in Ketho’s BlizzardInterfaceResources are where nearly every fact in the tables comes from, the Warcraft Wiki’s complete console variable list gives the retail defaults to compare against, and Stanzilla and the Advanced Interface Options contributors keep the index we all look things up in. Dmitro at Conquest Capped tested the graphics variables on the beta, and Cory and Xanarrissa on the Blizzard forums were the first to post what the camera would accept on the beta.

The four to look at first

If you only look at four, make it these, and the first matters more for a druid than for any other class, because a druid answers most problems with a shift, and a shift you can’t press in time doesn’t help.

• The spell queue window, SpellQueueWindow is how early, in milliseconds, the game lets you press your next spell before the current cast or global cooldown ends and still have it go off on time. The launch client’s default is 400, the most retail lets you set, and the trouble with 400 is that whatever you pressed in that window is locked in, so if you queued a Wrath and a Warrior starts his charge, the Wrath goes off before your Bear Form does. The rule most people on the forums use is your ping plus about 100, whilst Xerwo at Maxroll argues for no less than ping plus 200 or leaving it at 400 (fair for a PvE healer who never cancels anything), and this guide recommends going lower for a druid. Balance and Restoration in PvE can sit at 300 to 400, and Feral and anyone in PvP at ping plus 80 to 120, and your ping is the world figure under Latency when you hover the Game Menu button (that’s from the launch client’s code), so a player in North America on 30 ms would set about 130 to 150, one in Australia on a US realm at 180 ms about 280 to 300, and the 250 in the table’s command suits 150 ms. Never go below your ping, or every spell starts late (Kennie’s warning on the forums that 0 breaks your rotation is right). One catch for Bear, queueing an on-next-swing ability (Heroic Strike, Cleave, Raptor Strike) disabled the queue window in a beta known issue still open on 8 October and missing from the live list of 5 November, so with Maul, the same kind of ability, it’s safer not to rely on queueing a global behind it.
• The camera, cameraDistanceMaxZoomFactor sets how far you can zoom out, and the recommended setting is 4. The launch client’s slider only goes from 1.0 to 2.0, so anything further is console-only, and moving the slider again may pull it back under 2. Nobody has measured where the live client stops, but beta players reported 3.34 and 4.0 being accepted, which would match Classic’s 50 yard cap rather than retail’s 39, and as on retail and Classic the client should clamp 4 to whatever its limit is. If you’d rather stay inside a known number, 2.6 is retail’s cap and the safe minimum.
• Nameplate distance, nameplateMaxDistance sets how far away nameplates show, Forever has no slider for it, and its launch default is 45 yards, with a separate nameplatePlayerMaxDistance for players that defaults to 40, both saved per character. As the figure below shows, that’s already past your spells and more than double Classic’s 20 yards of 2019, so check it on each druid rather than change it. Read both with /dump GetCVar("nameplateMaxDistance") and the same for the player one, and if either comes back lower (an addon or an old setting can change it), set it back to 45 or 40. Whether Forever lets you go past them, and whether a higher value survives a relog, nobody has reported yet.
• Leaving autoUnshift on, autoUnshift makes a caster spell pressed in Cat or Bear drop the form and cast, which is how off-healing in form works, and it’s on by default, so if a heal in form ever fails to drop the form, read it with /dump GetCVar("autoUnshift") and set it back to 1.

Read against the 30 yard line, both plates already reach past anything you can cast, so the camera is the one worth pushing.

Camera

Most of the camera variables have a box in Options > Gameplay > Controls, and where they do, the menu is the better place to change them. The zoom is the exception, and the ActionCam settings are best left alone in PvP.

Combat and input

This is the group that changes how your keys behave, and seven of its variables (autoUnshift, ActionButtonUseKeyDown, ActionButtonUseKeyHeldSpell, enableMouseoverCast, showTargetOfTarget, SoftTargetInteract and SoftTargetEnemy) are secure, so set them with /run SetCVar out of combat.

Nameplates

Forever uses the newer nameplate system from retail’s Midnight expansion, and several of the names older guides give you have been replaced. Class colours are now nameplateShowClassColor rather than ShowClassColorInNameplate, and nameplateMotion isn’t in the client’s variable list (build 70532) at all. Stacking should be the Stack Nameplates box in the menu instead, but the launch code only shows that box when its own variable exists, so it may not show on live at all. Most nameplate variables are marked secure, so set them in town.

Combat text

Forever added detailed combat text options to the menu on 16 October, so most of these can be set there. The trap is the names, because many of the self combat text variables now end in _v2, and an older guide that tells you to set floatingCombatTextFloatMode is setting a variable that isn’t in the client’s variable list (build 70532).

Sound

These are the sound variables that matter for a druid, most of them so you hear a fight, or a queue pop, over everything else.

Graphics and clarity

These are the graphics variables that either have no slider or go past the one in the menu. Every one is saved on your computer only, and on the beta the Ground Clutter slider wrote over two of them (the grass settings) whenever it moved, so set them after you’ve finished with the menu.

Interface

The last table is the interface odds and ends, from your frames and bars to chat, screenshots and synchronizeConfig.

The ones to leave alone

A few variables either undo something Blizzard did on purpose or have a history of being treated as an exploit, and handing you those would do you no favours, because a hotfix will take them away, and a ban is a poor trade for a few yards of nameplate.

• Fog removal, Blizzard removed “a setting that could disable fog in an unintended manner” on 24 September, without naming it, and any new way of turning the fog off is likely to go the same way. Nobody has measured whether volumeFog 0 turns it off, thins it or does nothing on live, and it’s as far as this guide goes.
• Vertical nameplate distance, Blizzard’s 16 October notes say “the distance visibility for Nameplates for enemies and NPCs above and below the player have been adjusted”, and the Warcraft Wiki names the variables behind it as nameplateMaxVerticalDistance and a partner. Neither is in the client’s variable list at build 70532, the newest one published, so they may not exist on the live client at all, and if they do, setting them to 0 reverses a change Blizzard made on purpose, so leave them be.
• Nameplate range tricks, in 2019 Blizzard hotfixed a Classic trick that set nameplateMaxDistance to a value written in scientific notation to get past the cap. Use a plain number, and if the client clamps it, accept the clamp.
• Addon restriction switches, the variables with names like addonCombatRestrictionsForced are developer test switches from retail’s Midnight (the launch client’s own description says they restrict addon functions when set), and they give a player nothing.

Most druids need the four near the top, plus Sound_EnableErrorSpeech at 0 if you’re tired of hearing “not enough energy” every time you shift, and the rest are there for when something specific bothers you. Set those and you’ll likely find the game a little quicker to answer your keys than it was before you started.

The settings you can change from the menu are in the day-one settings guide, and if you want to see these on the live client, the stream starts once Restokins hits 60, most weekdays from midday AEST.

Contributing to this guide

If a variable here does nothing on the live client, does something different, or has been renamed again, I want to hear it, and I’ll credit you by name when I correct the guide. Paste the output of the /dump command in an issue on the Restokins GitHub, or, once the stream starts at 60, tell me there. Every claim this guide still rests on a precedent for is on the open questions page, as a question anyone can settle in game.